Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 31: Wangu's meal, rewriting the new script
After finishing his drink, Narita Heng refused Gu Ming's request to take him home and walked away staggeringly.

Wan Gujie came over, his hands in his pockets, and laughed, "Mr. Chengtian is really a troublemaker. Brother Gugu, you don't have to look so serious. This is not a bad thing, it's a good thing."

Wan Gujie briefly explained the rules of Wan Gu Yingji.

After hearing this, Gu Ming's eyes widened instantly.

"Is there such a thing?!"

After listening to Wan Gujie's story, Gu Ming understood why Cheng Tianheng had specifically emphasized that he should turn down all his work that day.

Such occasions are indeed rare.

Gu Ming really has to thank Wan Gujie now, otherwise if he hadn't made any preparations and just ran over like that, it would definitely be very troublesome.

Gu Ming thanked Wan Gujie solemnly, and was thinking in his heart what gift he should bring when the time comes.

It is absolutely impossible to go empty-handed. Although Wangu Eiji may not need any gifts, Gu Ming must not go empty-handed.

Wan Gujie accepted the thanks calmly, but there was some hope in his eyes.

"So, does Brother Gugu really know martial arts? If so, could you teach me a few moves?"

Gu Ming burst out laughing when he heard this.

"I'm only a dabbler, but even so, if I were to start from scratch, I'd have to practice hard from a young age."

Gu Ming still can't forget the pain he experienced when he first entered the opera world.

It is not an exaggeration to say that we should train hard in the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer.

Wan Gujie was a little disappointed after hearing this.

He wanted to learn some cool moves, but if it required hard training, he'd better forget it.

"It's not that complicated, actually." Gu Ming said, "I can teach you some nice moves that you can use to coax girls, but don't actually use them to hit people!"

Gu Ming used a few moves and made a few stances.

This is exactly what Wan Gujie wanted, so he started to learn seriously.

Wan Gujie clenched his fists, striking a pose, but couldn't help but tease, "In that case, Brother Gugu can be considered my master, right? If something happens to Wan Gu someday, Brother Gugu must help me!"

Gu Ming nodded in agreement and smiled.

What could happen to Wangu? Wangu is fine!
……

……

After that, Gu Ming had a rare two days of free time.

There was no new announcement from TBS, and Wan Gu didn't need Gu Ming's help for the time being, so Gu Ming spent two days in the library, reading a lot of books, and felt that it was very helpful.

On Friday evening, when Gu Ming returned home, he vaguely heard a sound in the house. He pushed open the door and saw that it was Shaqin.

Both of them maintained a strange tacit understanding. Although they knew what was going on, no one spoke first.

Let's just have dinner like this.

"Speaking of which, I have something important to do tomorrow, so I probably won't be back for dinner." Gu Ming briefly talked about the meal at the Wangu family.

After hearing this, Shaqin couldn't help but clasp her hands together.

"That's great! It's a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with President Wangu."

Gu Ming nodded. "But I'm also thinking about another thing. I can't go empty-handed, right? But I can't just buy some small cakes or something like that as a perfunctory gift like before. It's really confusing."

Shaqin lowered her head slightly, thinking about this matter.

After a while, she looked at Gu Ming hesitantly.

"Come to think of it, although Mr. Narita sounds like a jokester, he still specifically reminded Furuya-kun about this matter. But even so, he still didn't mention the gift. Perhaps it's because it wasn't needed anyway?"

Gu Ming nodded. "I also thought that Mr. Narita wasn't the type to confuse the important with the trivial, so if he didn't mention it, then there's probably really no need to buy a gift. But it's my first time there after all, and it would be rude to go empty-handed."

Shaqin nodded. "If you're really worried about a gift, try buying a bottle of slightly better shochu. Since it's a family dinner, alcohol is a must. Maybe Mr. Wangaya Eiji doesn't need a shochu, or maybe he doesn't drink, but a bottle of better shochu is very suitable for the occasion, and it can also show sincerity."

Bringing this kind of gift on a first meeting wouldn't seem too extravagant, nor would it make it seem like Gu Ming is showing off.

In short, it is an option that can be used for both offense and defense.

Gu Ming's knuckles bounced on the table, and in his heart, he was full of approval of this choice.

Sure enough, with the help of local people, even this kind of social custom is not a problem.

Gu Ming sighed with satisfaction and stared at Shaqin.

Really, thank you very much.

……

……

And so, Saturday came.

Gu Ming tidied it up a bit and went to buy a bottle of wine.

Well, since Gu Ming didn’t know much about Japanese sake anyway, he just picked a mid-priced model.

The huge glass bottle feels quite heavy in my hand.

After the call, Gu Ming came to Wangu and met Cheng Tianheng outside.

Cheng Tianheng glanced at what was in Gu Ming's hand and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"As expected, it was Xiao Jie who told you. Hey... I knew he would definitely talk too much."

Narita Heng came over, took the bottle, and said with a smile, "I'm not hiding this from you, but you don't need to bring anything when you come to eat at Old Man Wangu's place. But you did choose a good gift. Well, come in and sit down. We'll eat, drink, and watch the premiere of Ultraman together!"

Apart from Mantani's senior staff who had worked with Mantani Eiji for many years, the only two people invited were Tani Akira and Kurobe Susumu.

It was just five o'clock at this moment. Gu Ming followed Cheng Tianheng all the way to the residence behind Wangu Company. It was a small and simple courtyard. When the two entered the house, an old lady with gray hair came out to greet them and handed them slippers.

While expressing his gratitude, Gu Ming looked at Narita Heng, who introduced him in a low voice.

"This is Madam Mantani, Mantani Masano."

Gu Ming suddenly realized that it was Wangu Eiji's wife.

Although everyone in the Wangu family has the surname Wangu, in this situation it can only be Wangu Eiji's wife.

However, the old lady didn't seem to like talking. After a slight bow, she took the wine brought by Gu Ming, turned around and left in a hurry.

Narita Heng had already changed his shoes and patted Gu Ming on the shoulder: "The women are preparing dinner. Let's go to the Japanese-style room over there. This occasion belongs to us men!"

Gu Ming didn't say much.

After all, in this era, everyone is like this, so just accept it.

Gu Ming followed Narita Heng to the Japanese-style room inside. At a glance, he saw that there were quite a lot of people inside.

Wan Gujie was fiddling with the remote control out of boredom, while a drama from the late Edo period was playing on TV.

Wan Guyi and Wan Gu'ao are both busy with their careers and have not returned yet.

There were three heads gathered next to the kotatsu, including Tetsuo Kaneshiro and two strangers, whispering to each other.

Miyauchi Kunio was still wearing a mask as usual, sitting far away and looking a little eccentric - of course, this was because of his lung disease, and he was very worried about infecting other people, so he tried not to get close as much as possible.

"Dad is resting and will be here before dinner."

As Narita Toru said this, he squeezed next to the kotatsu, and his shadow fell over the heads of Tetsuo Kaneshiro and the others.

With nothing else to do, Gu Ming went over and saw several people rewriting the script. Many contents had been scribbled and modified, which made people dizzy.

After a long while, Tetsuo Kaneshiro finally raised his head.

"Oh, Furuya-kun, you're here."

Then there was no sound.

It’s not that Tetsuo Kaneshiro is indifferent, it’s just that the two of them are not very familiar with each other, and Tetsuo Kaneshiro doesn’t know what to say to Gu Ming.

He thought for a moment, considering what to say.

Narita Toru put his hand on each of the two screenwriters' shoulders and introduced them to Gu Ming.

"Tetsuo Kaneshiro, you've met him. Like Kaneshiro, he's also one of our great writers, called 'Masahiro Yamada'."

"This is Yamada-kun's disciple and Jincheng's friend, 'Uehara Shozo'."

Gu Ming, who was not very familiar with the behind-the-scenes, had never heard of the names of these two people.

However, these two people are also very famous screenwriters in special effects.

For example, Shozo Uehara, although he is not well-known now, later he spanned the three major special effects, and created works in "Kamen Rider" and "Super Sentai". He is considered to be the screenwriter with the smoothest work among Mantani.

After a few people greeted each other, there was no more talk. After all, they were strangers and it was difficult to communicate.

Kaneshiro Tetsuo hesitated for a moment before saying, "I've just finished rewriting the script for the second episode. Furuya-kun, why don't you take a look at it?"

After all, Ultraman is the top priority, so of course the script must be shown to Gu Ming.

Gu Ming nodded.

Then he won't be polite.

Gu Ming picked up the already written script and glanced through it.

Although the altered parts are painful to the eyes, the content has been highlighted, which is not much different from what Gu Ming remembers. It tells the story of how Baltan invaded the earth because he had nowhere to go, and his entire family was eventually wiped out by the first Ultraman.

But the final ending is different, divided into several different endings.

Gu Ming rubbed his eyes.

"Why, so many endings?"

"Yeah." Narita Toru hooked his arm around Kaneshiro Tetsuo's neck and said, "Why are there so many endings?"

Jincheng Zhefu became silent.

Well...don't hook my neck, it hurts!
Screenwriters seemed to be quiet, and Yamada Masahiro was just thinking without saying anything.

In comparison, Uehara Shozo was much more talkative: "Indeed, since everyone has different ideas, I'll just write it out for now. When Dad comes, I'll let him decide which ending to use."

This time, Jincheng Tetsuo deeply agreed and nodded: "Dad is the god of Wangu, and we can't live without Dad Wangu."

When you can't make a decision, go to Eiji Mantani, he always makes the best choice.

Gu Ming quickly glanced at several endings.

One was the ending he had seen, in which the Baltans were killed by Ultraman, and humans continued to live happily.

The other one is more gentle. After killing the giant Baltan, the remaining Baltan were sent to live on the moon.

The third one is very strange.

Gu Ming flipped through the book again and again and couldn't help but look up.

"It looks no different from the first ending."

Tetsuo Kaneshiro explained, "It's different. The first time, Ultraman didn't know about Baltan, but in this ending, Ultraman learns that he personally wiped out all of Baltan's people. So, as Doctor Monster, what exactly is going through Ultraman's mind? Guilt, or something else? It's up to you, Furuya-kun, to embody his thoughts and feelings after that."

Narita Toru let go of the few people, ignored the relieved expression on Tetsuo Kaneshiro's face, and started thinking with his chin in his hand.

"But, isn't it strange to send people to live on the moon? What makes you think that?"

Yamada Masahiro relaxed his neck, finally freed, and found an opportunity to speak: "Yes, the moon is too far away. We should send it to Mr. Narita's home and let Mr. Narita live with the Baltan."

This made Narita Heng so angry that he grabbed his neck again and exerted force.

Gu Ming laughed, but kept flipping through the pages.

Which ending to choose is really something to think about.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Ming finally spoke.

"I do have a somewhat immature idea, and I'm taking the liberty to bring it up. I hope you won't laugh at me."

(End of this chapter)